Thursday, October 4, 2012

South African Airways rescued

The South-African government has announced major financial support for the struggling airline South African Airways with an loan guarantee for loans from September 2012 until August 2014 up to 5 billion Rand (around 500 million Euro). With this the deficit-making carrier is rescued. In the recent days reports have strengthen, whereby the airline is not able to survive without cash-injection. SAA is the biggest airline in the country and is owned by the state. Except 2010, when the football world cup took place in the country, the airline has made huge losses in the recent years. The low-cost subsidiary Mango is deficit-making too.

In return for the loan guarantee, SAA has to develop an restructuring plan. Beside an optimization process of the carrier the airline want´s to serve more international plans in Africa.